Electronic devices with heat dissipation mechanisms

Abstract

By improving the efficiency of heat dissipation, at least using a fan, in electronic devices such as media converters, we aim to provide more convenient electronic devices. [Solution] The electronic device comprises at least a housing 10, a first circuit board 20 and a second circuit board 30 housed inside the housing 10, and a fan 40 attached to the top surface of the housing 10. The second circuit board 30 is equipped with components that generate more heat than those arranged on the first circuit board 20 (a first heat-generating element 31 and a second heat-generating element 32). The fan is configured to create airflow in the space between the top surface of the housing and the second circuit board, thereby discharging the heat generated by each heat-generating element to the outside of the housing. The grip portion 13, which constitutes part of the housing, is made of a heat-resistant material and is positioned on the inner wall portion 111 or outer wall portion so as to be flush with the outer surface of the outer wall portion 122 of the cover portion 12, so that the user can safely pick up the electronic device via the grip portion even when the inside of the housing is heated.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present invention relates to an electronic device capable of efficiently dissipating heat in an electronic device.

Background Art

[0002] As a method of dissipating heat inside a small electronic device (such as a media converter used for Ethernet transmission) having a high heat-generating component in a narrow area, a method of forcibly generating an air flow by installing a fan can be considered. For example, Patent Document 1 discloses a component cooler that dissipates heat generated by components using a heat sink and an electric fan.

Prior Art Documents

Patent Documents

[0003]

Patent Document 1

Summary of the Invention

Problems to be Solved by the Invention

[0004] However, when trying to install a fan that can ensure a sufficient air volume to dissipate heat in all internal spaces of the housing, problems such as being restricted in miniaturizing the electronic device due to the size of the fan also occurred.

[0005] Therefore, one of the objects of the present invention is to provide an electronic device with better convenience by improving the efficiency of heat dissipation using at least a fan in an electronic device.

Means for Solving the Problems

[0006] The present invention, made to solve the above problems, comprises at least a housing, a first substrate and a second substrate housed inside the housing, and a fan attached to the top surface of the housing, wherein the second substrate is provided with a heat-generating element which generates more heat than the elements arranged on the first substrate, and the fan generates airflow in the space between the top surface of the housing and the second substrate, thereby discharging the heat generated by the heat-generating element to the outside of the housing. Furthermore, the present invention is characterized in that, in the invention described above, the second substrate has a first region and a second region partitioned in the front-rear direction of the housing, a first heating element is arranged in the first region, a second heating element is arranged in the second region, the housing is provided with a first heat dissipation section that comes into contact with the first heating element when the housing is assembled, a second heat dissipation section is provided on the upper surface of the second heating element, and the fan is positioned directly above the second heat dissipation section when the housing is assembled. Furthermore, the present invention is characterized in that, in the above invention, the housing has at least a base portion, a cover portion, and a gripping portion, the base portion is made of a metal member that forms at least the bottom surface of the housing, the cover portion is made of a metal member that forms at least the top surface of the housing, the base portion has an inner wall portion that extends upward from the left and right sides of the base portion, the cover portion has an outer wall portion that extends downward from the left and right sides of the cover portion and overlaps with the inner wall portion when the housing is assembled, and the gripping portion is arranged on the outer wall portion or the inner wall portion so as to be flush with the outer surface of the outer wall portion, and is made of a heat-resistant material that has a lower thermal conductivity than the metal member that makes up the base portion or the cover portion. Furthermore, the present invention is characterized in that, in the above invention, the outer wall portion is provided with a mounting portion that penetrates the wall surface of the outer wall portion, and the gripping portion is arranged to contact the inner wall portion while closing the mounting portion. Furthermore, the present invention is a media converter in which the electronic device is used for Ethernet transmission, and the volume of the housing is 200 to 350 cm³. 3 It is characterized by the following: [Effects of the Invention]

[0007] According to the present invention, it is possible to provide an electronic device that is more convenient, at least in terms of heat dissipation efficiency. [Brief explanation of the drawing]

[0008] [Figure 1] A schematic diagram showing the overall configuration of the electronic device according to Example 1. [Figure 2] A schematic diagram showing the configuration of the mounting part and the gripping part. [Figure 3] A schematic diagram illustrating the cooling process. [Figure 4] A schematic diagram showing the configuration of the mounting portion and the gripping portion in the electronic device according to Example 2. [Modes for carrying out the invention]

[0009] Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. [Examples]

[0010] <1> Overall structure (Figure 1) As an example of an electronic device according to the present invention, a media converter used in Ethernet transmission compliant with IEEE 802.3ba / bm (100GBase-R4) will be described. The electronic device shown in Figure 1 comprises at least a housing 10, a first circuit board 20, a second circuit board 30, and a fan 40. The details of each component are described below.

[0011] <2> Enclosure (Figure 1) The enclosure 10 is a component for housing the first circuit board 20 and the second circuit board 30, as well as various components such as various modules that are installed on these circuit boards. The external dimensions of the enclosure 10 are preferably made to conform to the specifications of various racks for mounting the electronic device according to the present invention. In this embodiment, the housing 10 has a substantially rectangular parallelepiped shape, and at least includes a pedestal portion 11 to which a substrate can be attached, a cover portion 12 that can be attached so as to cover the pedestal portion 11 from above, and a grip portion 13 that is attached so as to be flush with the outer surface of the cover portion 12. In the present invention, the volume of the housing 10 is assumed to be about 200 to 350 cm 3 or so. Further, the external dimensions of the housing of the electronic device according to this embodiment are approximately width: 55 mm, depth: 110 mm, and height: 40.5 mm.

[0012] <2.1> Pedestal portion (FIG. 1) The pedestal portion 11 is at least a member that constitutes the bottom surface of the housing 10. In the present invention, the shape and structure of the pedestal portion 11 are not particularly limited, and any shape and structure that can constitute the housing 10 in combination with the cover portion 12 described later can be adopted. The pedestal portion 11 is preferably made of a metal member (such as aluminum) with excellent heat dissipation effect. In this embodiment, as a part constituting the pedestal portion 11, an inner wall portion 111 is provided.

[0013] <2.1.1> Inner wall portion (FIG. 1) The inner wall portion 111 is a portion that extends so as to project upward from the left and right side surfaces of the lower surface of the pedestal portion 11. In the assembled state of the housing 10, the inner wall portion 111 is located inside the housing 10 rather than the outer wall portion 122 of the cover portion 12 described later.

[0014] <2.2> Cover portion (FIG. 1, FIG. 2) The cover portion 12 is at least a member that constitutes the top surface of the housing 10. In the present invention, the shape and structure of the cover portion 12 are not particularly limited, and any shape and structure that can constitute the housing 10 in combination with the pedestal portion 11 can be adopted. The cover portion 12 is also preferably made of a metal member (such as aluminum) with excellent heat dissipation effect like the pedestal portion 11. Further, ventilation holes 121 may be appropriately formed in the cover portion 12. In this embodiment, the cover portion 12 has an outer wall portion 122 and a mounting portion 124 as parts that constitute it.

[0015] <2.2.1> Exterior wall section (Figure 1) The outer wall portion 122 is a part that extends downward from the left and right sides of the upper surface of the cover portion 12. The outer wall portion 122 constitutes the left and right sides of the housing 10 when the housing 10 is assembled.

[0016] <2.2.2> Mounting portion (Figures 1 and 2) The mounting portion 124 is provided on the outer wall portion 122 and is the mounting location for the gripping portion 13, which will be described later. In the present invention, the mounting portion 124 may be a hole penetrating the outer wall portion 122, or it may be a recess with a step created from the outer surface of the outer wall portion 122. In this embodiment, as shown in Figure 2, the mounting portion 124 is made up of a hole that penetrates the wall surface of the outer wall portion 122, and when the cover portion 12 is attached to the base portion 11 of the outer wall portion 122, the inner wall portion 111 can be exposed to the outside through the hole that makes up the mounting portion 124.

[0017] <2.2.3> First heat dissipation section (Figure 1) In this embodiment, the cover portion 12 is provided with a first heat dissipation portion 123 that comes into contact with the first heat generating element 31, which will be described later, when assembling the housing 10. The first heat dissipation section 123 has a shape with numerous fins arranged at intervals in the left-right direction of the housing 10, and the width direction of each fin is configured to face the front-to-back direction of the housing 10.

[0018] <2.3>Gripping section (Figures 1 and 2) The gripping portion 13 is a component that constitutes the gripping point of the fingers when picking up an electronic device. In the present invention, the shape and placement of the gripping portion 13 are not particularly limited, but it is preferable that it be configured to be attachable so as to come into contact with the inner wall portion 111 via the mounting portion 124 that exposes the inner wall portion 111, as shown in Figure 2, and that in the attached state the surface of the gripping portion 13 and the surface of the outer wall portion 122 are flush. Furthermore, it is preferable that the gripping portion 13 be made of a material with lower thermal conductivity than the materials constituting the base portion 11 and the cover portion 12 (such as a heat insulating material like rubber).

[0019] <2.3.1> Effects of the gripping part (Figure 2) By providing this gripping portion 13, even if the surface temperature of the base portion 11 or cover portion 12 rises due to heat generated by the internal components of the housing 10, the temperature rise of the gripping portion 13, which is made of heat insulating material, is suppressed. Therefore, when a user removes an electronic device from a rack, they can safely pick up the electronic device via the gripping portion 13.

[0020] <3> First substrate (Figure 1) The first circuit board 20 is a lower-layer circuit board that is installed on the bottom side of the housing 10. In this invention, it is preferable that the components installed on the first substrate 20 generate less heat than the components installed on the second substrate 30, which will be described later. For example, if the electronic device is a media converter used for Ethernet transmission, it is conceivable that a microcontroller processing circuit (logic circuit) and a power supply circuit may be installed on the first substrate 20.

[0021] <4> Second substrate (Figure 1) The second substrate 30 is an upper substrate that is installed above the first substrate 20 with a gap in between. In this embodiment, the second substrate 30 is shaped to fill the virtual plane when the housing 10 is viewed as a planar projection with almost no gaps, and the configuration does not anticipate actively promoting ventilation between the space sandwiched between the first substrate 20 and the second substrate 30 (lower space) and the space above the second substrate 30 (upper space). In other words, the internal space of the enclosure 10 is conveniently divided into a lower space and an upper space by the second circuit board 30, and these lower and upper spaces will have different air cooling methods that primarily function in each space.

[0022] <4.1> First heating element, second heating element (Figure 1) In this embodiment, the second substrate 30 is divided into two regions in the front-to-back direction, with the first heating element 31 installed in the front region (first region) and the second heating element 32 installed in the rear region (second region). The first heating element 31 and the second heating element 32 are assumed to be components that generate relatively large amounts of heat among the components that make up the electronic device. Furthermore, in this invention, the component that generates the most heat among the components constituting the electronic device may be selected as the second heat-generating element 32. For example, if the electronic device is a media converter, the first heat-generating element 31 could be an external input / output terminal circuit structure module (heat generation: 1.0W to 2.5W) housed inside a slot that constitutes an input port for SFP+ cables or STP cables (not shown in Figure 1), and the second heat-generating element 32 could be a communication LSI (heat generation: 5.0W to 15.0W).

[0023] <4.2> Second heat dissipation section (Figure 1) In this embodiment, a second heat dissipation section 50, which consists of a heat sink, is installed on top of the second heat-generating element 32, and the width direction of each fin of the heat sink constituting the second heat dissipation section 50 is configured to face the front-to-back direction of the housing 10. The effects of this configuration will be explained in the section on air cooling image described later.

[0024] <5> Fan (Figure 1) The fan 40 is installed on top of the enclosure 10 and is a component that takes in air from outside the enclosure 10 and ventilates the internal space of the enclosure 10, particularly the space above the second circuit board 30. In this embodiment, a fan 40 is configured to be attachable to an opening provided on the upper surface (top surface of the housing 10) of the cover portion 12 that constitutes the housing 10, and this fan 40 is configured to be located directly above the second heat dissipation portion 50 when the housing 10 is assembled. Furthermore, in the electronic device according to this embodiment, the airflow of the fan is 0.1 to 0.6 m³. 3 We anticipate a flow rate of approximately / min. The effects of this configuration will be explained in the air cooling image section below.

[0025] <6> Heat dissipation diagram (Figure 3) Figure 3 shows an image of heat dissipation from an assembled electronic device. Based on the configuration of each component described above, the electronic device according to this embodiment provides the following heat dissipation effects. (1) Improvement of heat dissipation efficiency by using natural air cooling and forced air cooling in combination The internal space of the enclosure 10 is divided vertically, and the area between the first circuit board 20 and the second circuit board 30 is designated as an area primarily cooled by natural air (natural air cooling area A1), so that components on the first circuit board 20 that generate relatively little heat are cooled by natural air, while the area above the second circuit board 30 is designated as an area primarily cooled by forced air using airflow from the fan 40 (forced air cooling area A2), so that components on the second circuit board 30 that generate relatively a lot of heat are cooled by forced air. Therefore, compared to the case where the entire internal space of the enclosure 10 is forcibly air-cooled by the fan 40, a smaller fan 40 with a lower airflow can be used. This eliminates the need to enlarge the enclosure 10 to accommodate a larger fan 40, and allows it to maintain a size equivalent to conventional electronic devices that use natural air cooling. (2) Promoting heat dissipation through the layout of high-heat generating elements By dividing the area above the second circuit board 30 in the front-to-back direction of the housing 10 and separately installing the first heat-generating element 31 and the second heat-generating element 32, and providing separate heat dissipation sections for each heat-generating element, the air drawn in by the fan 40 can be directed in the front-to-back direction of the housing 10, thereby improving the heat dissipation efficiency of each heat dissipation section. (3) Enhancing heat dissipation through fan layout By providing the fan 40 directly above the second heat-generating element 32 (and the second heat dissipation section 50), the cooling effect of the second heat-generating element 32 can be improved. [Examples]

[0026] [Modified view of the mounting part] Referring to Figure 4, the outline of the electronic device according to Example 2 will be described. In the electronic device according to this embodiment, the mounting portion 124 provided on the outer wall portion 122 is made up of a recess with a step from the outer surface of the outer wall portion 122, and a gripping portion 13 is used which has a thickness that becomes flush with the outer surface of the outer wall portion when it fits into this recessed portion. Although the configuration according to this embodiment may slightly reduce thermal insulation performance because the thickness of the gripping portion 13 is thinner than the wall thickness of the outer wall portion 123, the same effects and advantages as in Embodiment 1 can be obtained. [Explanation of Symbols]

[0027] 10: Cabinet 11: Base 111: Interior wall section 12: Cover section 121: Ventilation holes 122: Exterior wall 123: First heat dissipation section 124: Mounting part 13: Grip part 20: First substrate 30: Second circuit board 31: First heating element 32: Second heating element 40: Fan 50: Second heat dissipation section A1:Natural air cooling area A2: Forced air cooling area

Claims

1. The casing and A first circuit board and a second circuit board are housed inside the aforementioned housing, The enclosure comprises at least a fan mounted on the top surface, The second substrate is equipped with a heating element, which generates more heat than the components placed on the first substrate. The fan is characterized by generating an airflow in the space between the top surface of the housing and the second substrate, thereby discharging the heat generated by the heat-generating element to the outside of the housing. Electronic devices.

2. The second substrate has a first region and a second region that are partitioned in the front-to-back direction of the housing, A first heating element is placed in the first region. A second heating element is placed in the second region. The housing is provided with a first heat dissipation section that comes into contact with the first heat-generating element during the assembly of the housing. A second heat dissipation section is provided on the upper surface of the second heating element. The fan is characterized in that it is located directly above the second heat dissipation section when the housing is assembled. The electronic device according to claim 1.

3. The aforementioned housing, It has at least a base, a cover, and a gripping part, The base portion consists of at least a metal member that forms the bottom surface of the housing, The cover portion consists of at least a metal member that forms the top surface of the housing, The base portion has inner wall portions that extend upward from the left and right sides of the base portion. The cover portion has outer wall portions that extend downward from the left and right sides of the cover portion and overlap with the inner wall portion when the housing is assembled. The gripping portion is positioned on the outer wall portion or the inner wall portion so as to be flush with the outer surface of the outer wall portion, and is characterized by being made of a heat-resistant material with a lower thermal conductivity than the metal member constituting the base portion or cover portion. The electronic device according to claim 1 or 2.

4. The outer wall portion is provided with a mounting portion that penetrates the wall surface of the outer wall portion, The gripping portion is characterized in that it is positioned to contact the inner wall portion while closing the mounting portion. The electronic device according to claim 3.

5. The aforementioned electronic device is a media converter used for Ethernet transmission, and the volume of the enclosure is 200 to 350 cm³. ３ Characterized by, The electronic device according to claim 1.

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